Member Info for benman

So the bank reached the long-awaited agreement to pay back what it owed. So what's the excuse for not trading? The market is unforgiving when shareholders are stuck in a position they can't unload. However low u think the stock will open, it is always better to let it trade than halt trading in a news blackout. If the bank is hoping for some event, it should announce it in a press release and let the shareholders estimate for themselves the probability of that event actually happening. This will ultimately get reflected in the share price.

Thank you for the post rpol. However I am not yet convinced how the appointment of a kuwaiti prince would change anything in the short or even medium term. If you look at recent history, when serious investors come to the rescue of financial institutions, they first buy a large stake in the company directly from the company thus injecting badly needed cash, such as Buffet/Salomon Brothers or prince Al-Waleed/Citibank scenarios. That's putting your money where your mouth is. This also inspires much more confidence among investors. You might argue this is not a rescue and that would be debatable.. In any event it is way, way, way too early to get excited about this appointment. Personnally I would have much prefered if they had brought in an emirati Sheik. The UAE is way ahead of Kuwait as far as investing their petro dollars in acquisitions around the world, hence much better environment for EIIB sponsored financing. For now I would sell on strength. There will be ample opportunity to buy the stock cheaper further down the road.

With all due respect to his highness, prince Al-Sabah, I am not convinced this addition to the board will change the status of the bank's loan portfolio or its management's poor performance. Mr. Al-Sabah's holding in EIIB through the Action Group Holdings is worth close to 1.4 million pounds at today's closing price. Is it worth staking a royal family's reputation on? I am not convinced.... I just hope Mr. Al-Sabah has taken a close look at the bank's loan portfolio before coming onboard.

Does the bank think it loses its poise and "sang-froid" if it addresses its shareholders concerns? Hey! Wake up, up there in the boardroom! The stock is in a freefall in case you haven't noticed it. It was 6p last week, 5p today, how about 3p next week? What's your threshhold for pain?

CCH's advisor, Insinger de Beaufort, has resigned. Not the best timing, wouldn't you agree? Usually these things are done before the s...t hits the fan, if you excuse the expression. Is Insinger implying that it was kept in the dark? Hard to believe.... So who's to blame for these blunders and mismanagement? Who will reimburse the shareholders' losses?

I understand Alphasteel posted its belated 2005 annual accounts showing a loss of around 40 million bp. These are the same accounts that were already 4 months overdue when CCH signed a financing agreement with Alphasteel. Something smells fishy.... How was CCH going to justify lending money to this? Something smells really fishy. And I can assure you it's not the sushi.

Are we absolutely clear that EIIB is not the "First Bank" or "Second Bank" mentioned in the CCH Int'l press release dated Sept 19, 2007, referring to banks that have cut their funding of CCH Int'l? This is not the time to be tiptoeing around the subject. The sooner the bank either confirms or denies its involvement in the CCH fiasco, the better for its share price.

The news that just came out re. one of Cch's funding banks terminating its funding agreement with the company is pretty devastating. The questions that need answers immediately are: 1- What is the name of the funding bank? 2- Which are the entities that managed to get long term loans in lieu of short term commitments and does Alphasteel figure among them? 3- What's the status of other funding banks in view of what has happened? Any reassurances that they will continue funding Cch? 4- In the first sentence of the press release does "its assets" refer to Cch Intl or Cch Europe Gmbh? Either way this transaction, selling a subsidiary for 1 usd, needs a lot more explaining, especially given the fact that the other side of the transaction is Eren Nil, Cch Intl's chief executive and major shareholder.

Good time to be buying the stock. Keep in mind the banking sector in general will be under pressure because of the sub-prime mortgage debacle in the US, which will invariably spill into the UK market. Need to be patient. We haven't seen the bottom of it yet. The light at the end of the tunnel is an approaching train.

Better late than never. This was a courageous move by the company. I think the stock is near an intermediate bottom. It's time to buy. Longer term it depends on the management's performance.

I think this discussion has been quite enlightening and should continue in this manner. Obviously there is some merit in me discussing EIIB with Susan or Mohaimin in private emails or phone conversations. However I cannot then turn around and play the role of the company's Investor Relations, and "enlighten" you as you put it, because this would be a dangerous practice. I am sitting here observing and analyzing facts that are public knowledge. I cannot rely on material non-public info given to me privately because I believe the company has much more integrity to do something like that. The public information so far correlates with the trend in the stock. If EIIB believes the market is wrong and the trend should be reversed it needs to come out publicly and say it. Obviously the company's legal advisers are resisting this, which is hurting the share price. But that's not their concern. It seems they rather answer shareholder lawsuits.

My friend rpol, as far as the share buyback is concerned, there was a 46 million share block that changed hands about 3 weeks ago. Who at EIIB decides when to make announcements, I don't know. All I know is that when a stock with good fundamentals, as you claim, keeps droping, against market trend, it's the "Investor Relations" department's job to make an announcement, even if it has to reconfirm the company's good fundamentals and dispel any rumors. And whether EIIB is a one trick poney or not, you seem to know better. What I know is that the Alphasteel deal was of such a high importance that the company bothered to do an official press release, one of only 2 press releases in 2007 describing deals with clients. Now with such a cloud hanging over Alphasteel, the least EIIB can do is either stand firmly behind Alphasteel, or cut the cord. You can't be half pregnant, or half dead.... And when you talk about breaking up EIIB, please, let's not go there even hypothetically as this type of comments is bound to hurt the stock even more.

Continued: 2- Share buyback: unless you are an insider and you know otherwise, it is just so obvious that the buyback is in full force. Everytime the stock dips, trades of tens of thousands of shares are done on the uptick, showing that somebody is trying to prop up the price. 3- EIIB's debt levels: I don't believe this is an issue here because we are dealing with a banking institution. A bank does not need to borrow money like an industrial company would. The bank's balance sheet strength comes from the quality of the credit it has advanced and the level of its non performing loans, both of which are negatively impacted in the event of Alphasteel default. There seems to be a lot of unknowns with the Alphasteel situation, which until they are cleared up, share prices of both CCH and EIIB will suffer.

Rpol, unless you are an insider of EIIB, you cannot make some of the statements you've made with absolute certainty: 1- Exposure to Alphasteel: You have correctly pointed out that CCH is the one with Alphasteel exposure. However EIIB has advanced credit to CCH to lend to Alphasteel. If Alphasteel defaults, is CCH in a position to repay EIIB? The answer is, we don't know because we haven't seen the various credit agreements. The least we can say is that EIIB has an "indirect" exposure to Alphasteel. But what bothers me in this triangular relationship is the fact that when the credit agreements with Alpha were approved by both EIIB and CCH, the following were public knowledge: a- Alphasteel was more than 4 months overdue filing its 2005 accounts, which are still not filed. b- Alphasteel was one of three out of more than 700 UK companies that did not bother reporting its CO2 emissions, and was fined over 800,000 euros for it. c- The company's management team had a grand total of "zero" years experience running a steel manufacturing company before Alphasteel. d- In the mist of the biggest boom in the steel industry for at least the past 50 years, Alphasteel managed to lose money in 2004, most probably in 2005 and even 2006. This is a feat by itself. e- Alphasteel has no credit rating with any of the majors. So given the Alphasteel management's horrible scorecard, what exactly was the compelling reason to lend it money? 2- Share buyback: unless

You were saying? Even the heavy buyback has not helped the stock price. The Alphasteel cloud needs to be lifted.

I just found out that Alphasteel, one of CCH's main credit clients, is about to order 2 electric arc furnaces costing about 122 million bp (see Metal Bulletin June 13). It just seems to me that Alphasteel which is teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, could not chose a worst moment to make such a damaging announcement. When a company has difficulty making ends meet, why and how in the hell does it expect to expand? If CCH is financing the purchase, well .... I have already given my trade opinion.

It is not always what's mentioned in a press release that is important, but what's omitted. Conspicuously absent in the earnings release is any reference to the Alphasteel deal which was trumpetted with so much fanfare back in February 2007. Is the deal on or off? Shareholders want an answer.

Something else I found out today my friend rpol, Alphasteel is overdue filing its 2005 annual accounts which were due end of Oct 2006. Meaning when the financing agreement was struck with CCh on Feb 21 2007, EIIB and CCh knew there were no Alphasteel audited accounts, which is usually a clear sign of financial trouble at a company. So how do you figure they (EIIB to CCh to Alphasteel) agreed to advance Alphasteel a credit line? Management has some explaining to do. Watch out for the nosedive.

I hope you are right rpol, but I am not as optimistic. We don't know how much credit, if any, was advanced to CCh which in turn was lent to Alphasteel, and what collateral CCh has received. I am sure that Rosbank, which filed the receivership petition, also got the necessary collateral for its loan and thought it is in the driver seat. Does it truly feel confident today that it can get its money back?? What is now very clear to everybody is that Alphasteel is on the verge of a meltdown, much closer than it was on Feb 21, if the receivership petition is any indication. If god forbid, this happens, then CCh for sure cannot repay EIIB back so soon and EIIB's 2006 1.89 million pound pretax profit is little cushion against such a blow. A plunge in EIIB's earnings would surely cause a nosedive of its share price. Of course, judging by the stock's performance in the pst 3 months, looks like I am too late in pointing out this risk.

This business of financing Alphasteel Ltd through EIIB's agreement with CCH Int'l (see Feb 21, 2007 agreement) will undoubtedly hurt the stock. Just a month ago a couple of banks filed to put Alphasteel in receivership. Doesn't make sense to support it. My guess is the shares still have a long way to go down. Sell before it's too late.